A first look at Apple's new core in California

Drone video reveals Apple's new Campus 2 in Cupertino, California, showing the 'spaceship-like' main building with its open, center courtyard and roof of solar panels.

Recently released drone video shows the new campus of Apple, located in Cupertino, California. In a brochure mailed out to local residents in 2012, Apple said the new 71-hectare campus would include wooded walking areas, restaurants and a 9000-square-metre fitness centre.

On the company's website, Apple says it expects to move in about 12,000 of its employees when the project is complete in early 2017. The campus will become the company's new headquarters and is located about 1.6 kilometres east of its current headquarters in Cupertino. The website also says the facility will run on 100 percent renewable energy.

Apple bought most of the land for the campus from Hewlett Packard, where late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs got one of his first summer jobs after calling HP founder Bill Hewlett to ask for spare parts. Jobs personally showed the architectural plans for the new campus to the Cupertino city council in 2011, despite being ill at the time.

REUTERS

It's not a spaceship, it's Apple's new HQ.

"It's a little like a spaceship landed," Jobs had said of the circular building with its massive interior courtyard.

The main building spans 260,000 square metres and is more than four stories high. There is also an underground 1000-seat auditorium.